Sunday Times 2

October 9 was Vijaya Kumaratunga’s 76th birth anniversary. Kovilage Anton Vijaya Kumaratunga was born in Ja-Ela in 1945.

Thirty three years have passed since the brutal assassination of Vijaya, but the popular film star-turned-politico remains forever in the collective memory of his numerous fans. In his career of more than two decades, Vijaya enthralled millions of filmgoers with his scintillating screen performances. He won the award for the Most Popular Actor from 1983 to 1988 in multiple events. He had acted in 122 films at the time of his demise, with eight of them being posthumous releases.

In 1967, he started his film career and reached the peak with the romantic film Hanthane Kathawa directed by Sugathapala Senarath Yapa. Tony Ranasinghe and Swarna Mallawarachchi also acted in this film. I remember seeing the film as a school boy in 1969.

Vijaya was one of the few Sri Lankan actors who played a role in English films. In 1975 he acted in ‘The God King’ — Lester James Peiris’s historical film about “Kassapa of Sigiriya”. It had western actors like Leigh Lawson, Oliver Tobias and Geoffrey Russell playing the main roles of Kassapa, Migara and Dhatusena respectively. Ravindra Randeniya, Iranganie Serasinghe and Joe Abeywickrema were the other Sri Lankan actors in the movie. Vijaya acted the part of Lalith in ‘The God King’, which was his only English film.

Vijaya entered politics with the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and later joined the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and became its Katana organiser.  Vijaya contested the Katana constituency unsuccessfully against Wijepala Mendis in 1977.

At the 1982 presidential campaign he worked for Hector Kobbekaduwa. Vijaya was accused of being a Naxalite and jailed under the emergency regulations by President J. R. Jayewardene. He was never charged.

In 1984, he broke away from the SLFP along with Chandrika and other senior SLFPers like T.B. Ilangaratne and Ratnasiri Wickramanayake to form the Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya (SLMP).  The SLMP had a broad, refreshing political perspective.

He also went to Jaffna in 1986, when the peninsula was dominated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and met with its leaders  Sathasivampillai Krishnakumar alias ‘Kittu’ and Srikumar Kanagaratnam alias ‘Rahim’. Vijaya also welcomed the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987, thereby incurring the wrath of the Rohana Wijeweera-led Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna.

In a Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization publication on February 20, 2018, it was mentioned that Vijaya Kumaratunga participated in a ceremony on February 12, 1988, organised by the H.R. Jothipala Commemoration Society.  He declared open “H.R. Jothipala Mawatha” and made one of the most emotional speeches.  He spoke at length about his friendship with Jothipala and revealed how he as an actor benefited from Jothipala’s voice in films. He also acknowledged that his popularity was largely due to Jothipala’s playback singing. It is said that most of the members in the audience were moved to tears.

Even at that meeting there were security personnel keeping a watchful eye on the audience and the Secretary of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party, Premasiri Perera, had said that there was a serious threat to Vijaya’s life from the DJV (Deshapremi Janatha Viyaparaya, said to be the military wing of the JVP during the 1988-90 insurrection)

I read the one hundred and eighty two typewritten pages of the confession of the man who gunned down Vijaya Kumaratunga. It today serves as a spine chilling reminder that the DJV meticulously planned and executed the assassination of Sri Lanka’s best loved political leader.

The confession of Kumaratunga’s killer is a brutal reminder that in 1988, 27-year-old Pahalamullage Lionel Ranasinghe alias Gamini alias Mahinda alias Jayatilleka, whose occupation was a peanut seller, was transformed by the DJV into a killing machine.

In his confession to the CID, Ranasinghe when asked by a CID officer why he killed Vijaya Kumaratunga replied: “I killed him because of orders I received from the DJV.”

According to Ranasinghe’s confession to the CID, the DJV came into operation following the signing of the Indo-Lanka Accord on 28th July 1987 with the chief purpose of opposing the accord and the Indian Peace Keeping Force.

The killer was responsible not only for Vijaya’s assassination but also for the murders of many others including Professor Stanley Wijesundera, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo, DIG Terrence Perera and Nandalal Fernando, the General Secretary of the UNP.

Vijaya was shot dead in cold blood on February 16, 1988. He was standing near the front gate of his residence on Polhengoda road, and talking to an acquaintance when the assailants travelling in a motor cycle struck.

Vijaya was shot twice in the back and fell to the ground. The gunman then got off the motorcycle pillion and walked up to Vijaya, who was lying motionless, and pumped more bullets into his head and face. Thus ended the life of a charismatic leader who may very well have altered the destiny of this nation if he was not cruelly killed at the age of 42.

Vijaya was shot at close range also in the face.  After the post-mortem examination, make-up artist Ebert Wijesinghe tried to make Vijaya’s face as natural as possible, but his wife Chandrika was of the opinion that the face should not be shown to the people. So the upper part of the corpse had to be covered by the coffin in the last tribute.

Vijaya’s post-mortem examination was conducted by Dr. M.S. L. Salgado, the Judicial Medical Officer of Colombo. M.A.J. Mendis, the Additional Government Analyst who examined the scene of murder for spent bullets said that at least nine shots would have fired from a T56 rifle. He was shown the pool of blood at the scene. He asked the police to send him the bullets and empty casings.

Giving evidence at the Vijaya Kumaratunga Assassination Commission, he said, “Comparing the empty casings, I came to the conclusion that the same gun was used in the killings of SP Terrence Perera and UNP Chairman Harsha Abeywardene.” (They were killed on 2nd December 1987 and 23rd December 1987, respectively.)

Vijaya was killed just four days before his tenth wedding anniversary on February 20. His wife Chandrika Kumaratunga left the country with her two children seeking self-imposed asylum in Britain.

After the death, the body was brought from Narahenpita through the Town Hall in a large procession. A state funeral was held at Independence Square with full live coverage on the television on February 21, 1988. It was the first ever funeral to be telecast live on state television. His death is still mourned by many people in Sri Lanka.

(Excerpts from
a forthcoming book on
Vijaya Kumaratunga; ravindrafernando@hotmail.co.uk)

 

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